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Not with a Bang but with
I'd just like to point out that NWABBW now has even MORE fan art, made again by the amazing unexpected-profundity on tumblr. Do check out her gorgeous, gorgeous drawing of Sans meeting Asgore in Chapter 7 on the NWABBW tumblr, and be sure to give her all of your support!
Also, don't forget to check out the NWABBW blog for chapter status updates, bonus lore, silly writing-related ruminations, and a special deleted scene for this chapter that will be coming very soon after this one's release!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Into the Dark
oOo
Morning found Sans sprawled on his front on his brother's bed, one leg poking out from under the blankets and dangling over the edge of the mattress.
Sans groaned, rolling over to look at the clock on the dresser. 10:03 AM, it proclaimed in glowing red digits. 10 in the morning. Oh, boy. Papyrus was going to kill him.
It took him another ten minutes to find the willpower to drag himself out of bed and change, but as he finally made his way downstairs, it was to the welcome sight of Frisk and Undyne playing some sort of racing video game against each other. Papyrus stood a little off to the side, cheering both of them on.
Sans leaned over the banister with an easy grin. "Morning."
Both Undyne and Frisk crashed their cars for the distraction, but while Undyne groaned dramatically and lobbed a stray sock-ball at him – she missed – , the kid didn't seem to mind. She smiled brightly and tipped her head back. "Hi, Sans! Guess what! I beat Undyne two races in a row!"
"Congratulations, kiddo. You make sure ya slay her in the next one, now – I'm rooting for ya." Well, that explained why Undyne looked so very irritated. More than usual, at any rate. Undyne, it was discovered a little while after the family moved in together, had never gotten the memo about letting little kids beat you every once in a while so they didn't feel bad, and continued to be as fiercely competitive with Frisk as she was with everyone else. But, as it turned out, she really didn't need to "let" Frisk win at anything. She was a tough little cookie. Good on the kid.
Sans began to make his way downstairs just as Papyrus took to berating him for sleeping in so late and being "SUCH a LAZYBONES, BROTHER, for 'MORNING' is nearly FINISHED." It allowed Sans to make quite the entrance. He made his way into the kitchen, tailed by Papyrus, and popped a slice of bread in the toaster. He finally managed to ward his brother off when the toast was ready by slathering it in ketchup, peanut butter, and far, far too much mayonnaise. Papyrus left in a predictably irate huff, claiming that he refused to be in the same room as Sans if he was going to perpetuate such revolting eating habits.
Score.
Once he was gone, Sans gave the toast a hesitant nibble, then gagged and tossed it in the trash. He standards may have been pretty low, but at least he still had them – he wasn't a barbarian, even if Papyrus was convinced otherwise. Instead he made his breakfast out of one of the many pies Toriel had stored away in the fridge, heating it up in the microwave before teleporting downstairs.
His desk was still scattered in papers from last night. Sans took a bite of pie, pulling one of the reports closer to him as he leaned over it.
There hadn't really been anything written on the Void, before. Gaster had been the one who discovered it, the one who studied it. Sans, in turn, had done a lot of thinking about it, but he'd never done anything with those theories, never proved anything. It was little more than conjecture.
Even so, Sans had his own hypotheses.
He still had had nightmares about his creator, every once in a while. Demons coming out from the closet and reminding him they were still here. They were always the usual shtick - he was back to being strapped down to the operating table, back to being injected with Determination, to being subjected to even more experiments that made him scream and scream.
Subjected, ha.
It made no difference that the nightmares got real old, real fast. Every time, he'd wake up in a panicked sweat, his magic flaring around him, and when he finally came to his senses he'd bury his face in his pillow so Papyrus didn't hear him crying.
But as a child, in the first year or two following Gaster's fall, he'd had a recurring nightmare Gaster came back, crawled out of the Void to reclaim him. In the dreams, he would be back in his childhood bedroom, and there would be a crack in his wall that opened up into the Void. He'd watch as the crack grew, oozing a black, tar-like substance and splitting open like a smile. And from this tear, his creator would pull himself out of the Void, using his arms first. Spiderlike.
He'd wondered about this later, as he resumed work on the machine and finally saw proof that each Reset did in fact tear open the fabric of the world just a little more, letting the Void in. He'd wondered if Gaster really might be able to return, if the tear grew wide enough. Really pondered it, from a scientific standpoint.
But Sans had never really been able to come to a firm conclusion one way or the other.
The report he was looking at now was from 1996, but the one next to it was from 2013 – just two years before Frisk had fallen. There was a minor spike in Determination levels, which could be traced to the sixth human child who'd fallen a year previous. That human had had a yellow soul. It had contained natural traces of Determination all human souls possessed, but the human had lacked the power to Save and Reset. They hadn't been an anomaly.
Not quite Determined enough, just like him.
Sans took another bite of pie, finger tracing a row of complex equations the machine had spat out, then flipped through the 2013 report to the readings that had been gathered off the Void. They were higher, obviously.
He polished off the last of the pie and wiped his hands on his shorts, leafing through the papers on his desk, which were growing messier and messier at an alarming rate.
Indeed, with every report, the Void energy readings grew higher – no fluctuations, just a steep and steady upward climb. This was the fundamental result of the wounds to spacetime that had come with every single one of the flower's Reloads – and the kid's. All of that energy, that anti-energy, the total nothing on the edges of the universe, creeping closer.
Sans had never studied the reports from the machine very intimately. He hadn't noticed it before, but now was drawn to the fact that Void energy wasn't the only thing that had been increasing in the Underground over the years.
Fluctuations in the Underground's magical energy signature – both concentrated and residual – were to be expected. The Underground's magical energy signature shifted a little each and every day: the factors at hand were too many to name. Hell, if magical energy levels had remained entirely stable over the course of two decades, it would be an indicator of something seriously wrong.
These readings were different. There was a pattern here. The reports didn't just indicate fluctuations. Just like the increase in Void energy, the rate of disturbances in the magical sphere had been increasing steadily over the years.
And every bit of Void energy that the machine detected was energy that had been leaking into the Underground. Poisoning it.
The relationship was not a coincidence.
Sans quickly shoved the reports across the table.
"What do you want, Gaster?" he murmured. "The Barrier's broken. What the hell could you want now?"
He brought a hand to his chest, wincing, and clutched at his sternum.
His soul had been aching for three days straight.
It wasn't just an ache, though. His soul felt weighed down, waterlogged. It was similar to the sensation of having it held by blue magic, only worse, and cutting much deeper. Like hands gripping his soul and squeezing it tight, wringing it out like a damp cloth. Mine.
Sans pushed the feeling aside.
It was strange, looking at these reports again. He'd monitored the timelines across the flower's erratic Resets for years, alone in his basement workshop. But always without any real purpose. He'd done it as though someone had assigned him to the task, as if it were his job and he had to, though of course that couldn't have been further from the truth. Simply keeping an eyesocket on the Underground's Void energy and Determination levels was a pointless endeavour, really.
Like watching an oncoming storm you knew you were powerless to stop; or knowing that a meteorite was about to hit the Earth and not even bothering to break out the champagne while you still could.
Yet he'd done it anyway, running formal scans on a monthly basis, sometimes even twice or three times a month. He'd even found a way to rig his phone up to the machine so that he got a notification if it picked up on any strong disturbances. He'd been so ludicrously dedicated to his task, even when it had no purpose.
But he did have a purpose now. A real purpose, something to fight for.
They were on the Surface, and there was only one timeline now. One course of action, with consequences that couldn't just be undone anymore.
Not that he really knew what he was doing. If his theories on the Void were conjecture, then all of this was just a shot in the dark.
And he was probably just prolonging the inevitable besides.
But that was fine. Just so long as he found a way to keep the kid safe. Because what Gaster wanted was Frisk, apparently. And he had to protect Papyrus - and the rest of the family, for that matter. No matter what it took.
Sans continued staring at the reports a moment longer, then stood up. Nope. He wasn't the least bit sure what he doing just yet, but whatever it was, he might as well get it over with.
But before he headed out, he had a last bit of business to tend to.
He picked up his plate, then teleported back upstairs to the kitchen. There, he found Alphys washing the dishes. He landed directly behind her, but she took no notice of him. Sans grinned a little, leaning over her shoulder. "Heya."
Alphys made a sound like a mouse being stepped on and nearly dropped the mug she was washing. She spun, then groaned and rubbed at her temples. "God, Sans, don't scare me like that. D-do you have t-to that every time?" She flashed him an irritated look, whipping the dish cloth in his direction.
Sans sidestepped easily out of the way. "Hey, careful with that – 1 HP here."
Alphys just rolled her eyes, then sighed and turned off the tap. "W-what's up?"
Sans shrugged, leaning back against the counter.
"Oh, the usual." He cleared his throat, then cut to the chase. "Actually… had a couple things to ask ya."
"O-okay?" Alphys looked sceptical.
"I was thinking about the timelines," he spoke up. "The machine. I've really been meaning to fix it for a while now, y'know? So I wanna gather up some spare parts and whatnot, see what I got back home. Maybe when I get back, you wanna give me a hand?" He tilted his head to one side and offered her a slight, inviting little smile. "Like the old days."
"The old days," Alphys echoed, her voice going distant. She snapped back to attention just a moment later, and took up the task of drying the coffee mug. "Y-yeah. O-okay. But, um… well, wasn't the machine, ah, designed for the Underground? I-it wouldn't have much purpose here on the Surface, would it?"
"We could update it." It was a piss-poor excuse, one that Alphys was more than clever enough to see right through. She'd also just pointed out a major hole in Sans's logic –a major hole in his entire plan, which was irritating.
Especially considering that his plan currently consisted of little more than a few tattered scraps. He didn't need the reminder.
"Listen," Sans continued. "I'm just gonna head down there, gather what I want, and bring it back up. I got this… " Sans trailed off and shook his head. "Just wanna check some stuff out while I'm at it."
Alphys was silent for a moment, letting Sans's mind drift. His and Alphys's relationship had been a little strained ever since he'd taken up work on the machine alone, but they'd remained friends, officially.
"Wh-why don't I come with you?" she spoke up, snapping him back to attention.
Sans sighed. Oh, but he knew her so well. Of course she'd offer.
"I-I mean! I-I could help you c-carry all the stuff! I-I'm not very strong, actually I'm s-sort of the opposite of 'strong,' but I'm still k-kinda stronger than you, n-no offence – that is! Yeah, I could help you carry… Well, also, i-if you need to go to the old, um, the True Lab I-I could head down for you and see what I can find, b-because, you know, you have that weird hang-up about the place; you s-still haven't told me why by the way… "
"Do I ever tell ya why?" Sans grinned, fast and easy. If he couldn't get away with being secretive, he might as well play the part.
"N-no. You never do." Alphys sighed, and Sans grinned brighter still.
"Anyway. No, I don't need ya to come down with me. I'd rather go by myself. And since I know you're about to ask what I wanna do with the machine in the first place, I'll save time – I'm a lazy guy – and inform you beforehand that I'm not gonna answer. Not exactly certain what I wanna do myself, see. Maybe I've just been on the lookout for an adventure." Sans broke off and stared down at his feet. "And, uh, I actually gotta ask you for a kinda favour thingy."
A dish cloth and a plate, dripping wet, were suddenly thrust into his hands. "I-if you help me with the dishes, maybe."
Sans stared down at them. He shrugged a little. "Fair enough." He began to dry the plate, not really paying much attention as he did it.
Alphys resumed washing the dishes. Sans had been drying the same plate for over a minute when she gently pried it from his hands and placed it in the cupboard. "Sans?" she asked. "A-are you going to…?"
"Yeah," he said. "Right." He released one last, long sigh. "Listen, Al. I trust you. Y'know that?"
The tap was turned off. Just silence now.
Alphys laced and unlaced her fingers together in quick, anxious motions. "Y-you really shouldn't, you know," she mumbled. "B-but… um, I-I think you were about to say something important there, s-so… Sorry, I-I really killed the moment there, didn't I, would you still - "
"I do trust you," Sans said firmly. "But, uh, yeah. Listen to me for a sec."
"… o-okay."
He breathed in, out. His soul tensed suddenly, and he suppressed a wince. Then, the feeling passed. "So, first of all. Disclaimer, you can't tell anyone what I'm about to say. Not a word. Not to anyone. Not even Papyrus. Especially not Papyrus. Capiche?"
She faltered, then nodded carefully.
"So. I'm off to the Underground, yeah? Won't be back 'til pretty late. Now, I'm gonna have my phone on me, so if I don't come back in a while – say by, I dunno, twelve hours – then you're allowed to maybe get a little worried. So just… give me a call, won'tcha? And then maybe start to get really worried if I ain't back in 24. And, uh, if 48 hours go by and I still haven't answered… " He gave a noncommittal shrug. "There's this letter. In my desk drawer, down in the basement. So yeah, give it to Papyrus for me, if I ain't back by then. 'course, that would, uh, render the little don't-tell-anyone-especially-Papyrus clause null. But only after 48 hours."
Alphys did not seem very happy with this – which Sans figured was fair, since it really did sound awfully morbid without context – but mostly she seemed confused. Also fair. "Um.. w-what? I'm sorry, what? Sans, what are you – "
Hands spread out, he began to walk backwards into the living room. "That is. That was a joke. I was kiddin'. Tryin' to get a reaction outta ya."
Alphys crossed her arms over her chest. "Y-you don't think I actually believe that." She said it flatly – not a question, but a statement. Scientific fact.
Sans only waited a moment before stopping where he stood. He offered her another grin, but he didn't bother trying to make this one genuine. After all these years, he supposed he owed her something, at least. "Yeah, didn't actually think you would."
She bit her lip. "What is it, then?"
"Just don't worry about it," he replied. "Go treat yourself today. Tori's coming back in, what, three days? Take Undyne out to dinner or somethin'. Papyrus can watch the kid. And then tonight you can tell me all about it." He smirked at her immediate blush, then, before she could respond, took a few more paces back, and out of the kitchen.
And as soon as he'd stepped out into the living room, he took a shortcut out to the porch.
He didn't think Alphys was going to leave this alone; she could be persistent when she wanted to be.
But that didn't matter.
He didn't plan on sticking around long enough for her to do anything about it.
Sans leaned back against the door for a moment, sockets sliding shut. He needed to go. He would go. Soon. Just not now. Not yet, not ready.
He must have stayed like that for ten minutes before he turned his head and peeked into the house through the front window. The blinds were halfway shut, and he couldn't see Undyne from over here, but he could just make out Frisk sitting on the sofa, her body angled to look at something behind her. Good. It would be better – easier – if the kid was distracted and didn't notice him; otherwise she'd probably insist on coming or some shit.
Which Sans absolutely couldn't have.
It would be a lot easier if he didn't see Papyrus, either.
Right.
Time to leave.
He'd only taken one step off the porch when the front door opened and Papyrus stood there, holding the recycling in one hand and a garbage bag in the other.
Sans froze.
Welp. So much for that.
"Brother?" Papyrus, too, stopped where he stood, though he did shoulder the door shut behind him.
"Hey, bro." Sans thrust his hands into his pockets, so they were right at home, and plastered on a quick grin. "I, uh. I was just gonna head back to the Underground for the day to – "
"Yes, Doctor Alphys MENTIONED you were going back for the afternoon."
Sans was vaguely aware of his eyelights dimming to pinpricks. He took a step or two back. "Yeah? She, uh, say anything else?"
"No." Papyrus stepped off the porch and strode efficiently past Sans to the garbage and recycling bins on the edge of the driveway.
Sans searched his brother's face for a lie, but finding none, he relaxed, if only a little. Papyrus had always been a terrible liar, anyway. On one memorable occasion, when he'd been twelve, he'd insisted that he and Undyne had absolutely not been riding their bikes over the steam vents in Hotland despite multiple eyewitness accounts claiming the contrary.
Shortly afterward, he'd burst into tears and had been inconsolable for the next hour.
"Well – " Sans began, but Papyrus cut him off.
"But Sans … " He set his load down to lift the lid of the garbage bin and paused, thinking. "She seemed VERY upset. Brother, did you say something to disturb her?"
"No. Nah. Nothing. I, uh – "
"She seemed very worried about you." From here, Sans could see the way his brother's brow bone came together in a deep frown. "And I worry, too." He dropped the garbage bag into the bin and dropped the lid. It came down with a heavy thud that made both of them jump.
"Aw, Paps." Sans strolled across the lawn to join him. "You don't gotta worry about me. 'm fine." Beat. "This ain't about yesterday, is it?"
Papyrus's silence was enough of an answer. His brother placed gloved hands on the lid of the recycling bin, palms laid flat and fingers splayed out. He stared resolutely down at them as if they might provide an answer to some unposed question.
Sans clenched his teeth together. He should be going. Doing something to protect the kid – and, for that matter, Papyrus too, probably. He hadn't wanted to encounter his brother for this very reason. Because now he was distracted, because now he was tempted to stay.
"Hey. Hey, Paps." Sans reached up and rubbed his spine like he had when he was a little kid. "C'mon. Listen, I really am sorry 'bout yesterday. Was just a ba – "
"A bad day," Papyrus finished heavily. "You ALWAYS used to say that, before the tiny human arrived! Always! And you SAID you were better here on the Surface, but that is obviously not the CASE!"
Sans looked away. "I'm trying, Papyrus."
"You're ALWAYS trying! And brother, I believe in you as I WISH you knew, but for all you try, nothing ever seems to WORK!"
Sans flinched.
Papyrus faltered, then placed his hands on his hips. He was trying to sound strict, but fell short, so that the only thing discernible in his tone was strained concern. "If you are having bad days like THAT again, perhaps you ought to wait until you are feeling a bit better before heading back to the Underground!"
"Bro – "
Now Papyrus found the tone he was looking for. "And however do you plan on GETTING there when you are SUCH a LAZYBONES? It is SEVERAL MILES to the mountain, and then you must still climb it!"
"I was planning on takin' a shortcut."
"UGH! I should have known!"
"And," Sans said, grinning, "you might worry about me skull-king around the Underground when – "
"Brother," Papyrus interrupted. "If you try to distract me by making some dreadful puns, or, or, out-of-place joke about the road-crossing habits of poultry, I will be EXTREMELY UPSET and MORE THAN A LITTLE CROSS."
"Okay," he said, grin not fading in the slightest. "Okay, fine. Maybe you deserve a day without puns for once, then. Might as well make it a day I won't be around so's I don't gotta worry about resisting the temptation of telling a real rib-tickler."
"SANS!" Papyrus huffed loudly, lifted the lid of the recycling bin, and dumped his load in before letting the lid drop again with an even more aggressive bang. Then his expression softened. "Brother… maybe I should accompany you?"
Not this again. Sans shook his head. "Nah. I'm – "
"If you allow me to accompany you on this venture, I can WATCH you, brother, and ENSURE YOUR ULTIMATE SAFETY!" He paused awkwardly, then thrust a hand to his chest and assumed a typically heroic pose. "NYEH HEH HEH! Would you DENY the GREAT AND NOBLE COMPANY of THE GREAT PAPYRUS?"
Sans grinned up at him, wider still. "Ya said great twice, bro. Can't go round usin' the same adjective in the same sentence. Ain't proper."
"VALIANT, THEN!"
"Valiant works. 's a good word." Sans glanced out at the street. "Look, I know you prob'ly miss it back there, too, and wanna pay a visit home, but maybe next time. 'kay?" Papyrus looked disappointed. "So I, uh, better head out now."
Sans faltered, staring up at him. Because by God, now that Papyrus was here, all he wanted to do was just stay here, in the yard, with his brother, and be scolded for telling atrocious bone puns he'd beaten like a dead horse. Be lazy, sit back and relax as the storm came his way.
He resisted the urge to hug him.
Sans just kept on staring, trying to memorise every detail of his brother's face.
His bright eyesockets, his own permanent grin. The slight arc to his brow bone that perpetually made him look as if he were on the verge of asking a question, the point to his nasal cavity, and every tiny, beautiful imperfection in the bone. There was the tiny chip in his front tooth, only noticeable if you were looking for it, that he'd gotten when he was fourteen during a sparring match with Undyne.
The face that Sans had looked down upon for the first time, one day when he was seven years old, and changed his world forever.
"Brother? What are you doing?"
"Sorry. Sorry." Sans looked sharply off to the side, in the direction of the house. He caught a glimpse of Alphys in the window, watching them, and grit his teeth before pointedly turning his head the other way. "Just, uh, spaced out." He drew in a breath. "See ya, Papyrus." His hand rose to reach out to him, then fell limp at his side.
Sans took one last, long look at his brother, then turned on his heel and walked away without looking back.
oOo
He wouldn't be able to teleport to the Underground. Not really.
It was too far, miles just to reach the base of the mountain. Sans hadn't had too much trouble using his shortcuts back in the Underground, but then he'd never had to travel any great lengths. Even a trip from the Ruins door to the furthest corner of New Home didn't match the distance of teleporting to the Underground from all the way over here. That was the way of things up here on the Surface. And while Papyrus was convinced otherwise, he'd always used that particular power of his sparingly.
Mostly.
So maybe he had been showing off just a little when the kid arrived. Just a tad.
Well, it would do him good to conserve his energy as much as he could. Something told him he was going to need it.
So now, Sans walked, on foot, to the nearest bus stop, four blocks from their house. The bus would take him to the furthest edge of town – nearly to the base of the mountain.
He'd only made it two blocks when he heard the sound of little running shoes hitting the pavement, coming from behind him.
"Sans! Dunkle Sans! Sans, wait for me!"
Sans stopped where he stood. He shut his eyes and breathed out. "You're not gonna stop me from heading back to the Underground, kid."
Frisk stumbled to a stop next to him – his left, she was good at that. "I wasn't going to." She sounded surprised. She had her windbreaker slung over one shoulder; now she finally put it on.
Sans cast her a sidelong glance. "Alphys send ya?"
"No." Frisk shook her head, then bit her lip, suddenly a little nervous. "I sneaked out of the house. She doesn't know I'm here; nobody does. I left a note in my room, but... probably no-one knows I', gone yet. Don't tell on me, please?"
Sans winked, drawing an X over his sternum. "Wouldn't stoop to that level, kid." He kept walking, however, forcing the kid to hurry forward a few paces to catch back up to him. "So. How'd ya know I was out here?"
"I heard you talking to Auntie Alphys and Uncle Papyrus about it."
"You were eavesdropping," he clarified, calmly. Frisk faltered, and Sans chuckled, reaching out to ruffle her hair. "'s alright. What be your mission?"
Frisk sucked in a deep breath. "I wanna come with you," she blurted.
A part of him had suspected as much. But it was still enough to make him freeze on the spot. Sans swivelled his head to get a better look at her.
He couldn't have it, of course. He just had to find a clever way to shake her off. "That a fact?"
"Yep!" Frisk seemed inexplicably proud of herself.
"Thought you were playing video games with Undyne. I wouldn't wanna take you away from that."
"Yeah, but then Auntie Undyne started to get mad that I kept beating her so she went to the backyard to punch her dummy for a little. And then after I heard what you were saying to Alphys and Papyrus and then I – "
"Came out here."
Frisk nodded solemnly, then crossed her arms over her chest. "I can tell you don't want me to come. But I am coming with you and you can't stop me, so there."
"Uh. Yeah, I can." Sans resumed walking, placing one foot calmly in front of the other. The kid did the same, the challenge never fading from her expression.
"No, you can't! I am coming, I'm gonna follow you, and you can't make me go back home. What are you doing down there, anyway?"
Sans raised his brow bone. "Well, seein' as you listened in on both my conversations, I'd have thought you'd know just as well as me. You should practically know better than me. Also, I did tell you last night."
"Yeah, but what are you gonna do if you fix the machine?"
"Already told you I don't know," he said, more sharply than he intended. Frisk flinched, and Sans sighed. "Sorry, kid."
They had reached the corner store. Sans came here often; the human who worked here wasn't bad. He paused, then swung over in the direction of the door. "I'm gonna get myself some chips. Little treat for the road. You want anythin'?"
Frisk followed him inside. "Iced tea?"
He waved her in the direction of the fridge at the back of the store as the owner gave him a nodded greeting. Sans returned it, then took a bag of chips from the shelf. He paused. Then, changing his mind, he put them back, joined Frisk by the fridge, and grabbed a can of beer instead.
Sans paid for both their drinks, then led Frisk outside and carried on in the direction of the bus stop, the kid making a brief but suspicious comment on "keeping him company." It wasn't until they were seated at the bus stop that Frisk spoke up again.
"Are you just gonna bring up parts, or are you gonna scan stuff, too?"
Sans cracked open his beer and took a long swig. Ah, that was better. He squinted out at the passing cars. "Might scan some stuff – get some base readings on what the Void levels are like now. I got some less sophisticated equipment in my workshop that'll do the trick – it won't tell me much of value, but it should pick up on anything that's real off."
Frisk swung her legs, the picture of innocuousness. "Are you gonna try to study anything else down there?"
He shrugged. "Guess I could also try and get a good look at the locations o' the old Save points; there might be something there. Lingering energy of… not quite sure."
The kid smiled.
He did not like that smile.
Shit.
"But you don't know where the Save stars are, do you, Dunkle Sans?"
"Nooo," he ventured. "Guess I don't."
Frisk beamed wider. "But I do. So you need me to show you, right? How else are you gonna know where to even find them to study 'em?"
"… you told me there was one outside the Snowed Inn."
"That's just one, though! Don't you wanna study the others?"
Yes, he'd expected as much. And he could not deny that this little girl was good.
"You could tell me," he offered weakly.
Frisk shook her head from side to side. "Nope. Only if you let me come."
There came a screech as the bus pulled up to the stop with the release of an acrid puff of fumes. Frisk stood up along with him just as the doors swung open.
Sans turned on her. "You're not coming, kid."
"I am, you need me to come!" Frisk crossed her arms over her chest again. "Or I'll tell Uncle Papyrus you're doing something dangerous. And I'll tell Auntie Undyne, too."
Sans cursed under his breath, bringing a hand to his skull as he looked between Frisk and the bus in bewilderment. He tried not to imagine what might happen if Undyne got wind of his plans. Though it would probably be worse if it was Toriel. She'd be upset with him, undoubtedly. Sans wasn't sure why, but he didn't like the idea of Toriel being upset with him.
"Hey! You gettin' on or not?" the bus driver called out.
Sans swore again, not caring for now if Frisk heard him. He pointed a finger at her. "Fine. Fine. Let's go. Get on." Frisk all but squealed and bounded aboard the bus, making a beeline for the best seats by the back window. Sans followed a little more slowly, dropping two tickets into the collections-box and ignoring the bus driver's irritated remarks.
He couldn't just have an eight-year-old tagging alongside him on this venture. Especially not this eight-year-old. He was supposed to keep her safe; that was the whole point.
Did Frisk know just how much danger she could very well be in? She seemed absolutely ecstatic, but then she hadn't been too phased by strange monsters in a strange land trying to claim her soul when she'd first journeyed across the Underground, either. But this was different – even she had to understand that.
Sans had told her about Gaster, as much as he'd seen fit. There was still plenty she didn't know, of course, plenty he would never tell – all of it probably enough to fill the Royal Library. He hadn't thought he would need to tell her anything more, had thought that the barebones story he'd related had been more than enough.
Now, however…
Sans took the seat next to Frisk, and though she seemed to be in a fine mood, he didn't miss the way her hand moved to clutch at her chest, small fingers worrying the fabric of her sweater as her face contorted.
Her soul was hurting too.
He would let her join him to Snowdin, he decided. Snowdin was safe, familiar. But if it came down to it, and he was forced to return to the labs to gather his equipment, then he would send the kid back home, no matter how much she protested.
Everyone would probably be wondering where Frisk was by now. Maybe they'd even found the note after searching for her in her bedroom. Sans didn't plan on asking what she'd written.
God.
Toriel was going to find out about this, whether he visited the Royal Labs or not.
And then she was going to kill him.
Against all expectations, Frisk chattered away the whole bus ride – about school, about cartoons, about the book she'd started reading, about the games she'd invented with Monster Kid the other day at recess.
Sans nodded, offered "hmms" and "yeahs" and "greats" in all the right places, but he was barely listening. He rested his elbow against the back of his seat and his chin in his hand, staring out the window. At some point his eyes drifted shut. He felt Frisk poke him in the chest and tug at his sleeve, but he pretended to be asleep, and at last came the kid's huff of frustration before she threw herself back against the seat, giving up.
The bus ride was another 30 minutes – last stop. Frisk bounded off the bus and waited impatiently for Sans to disembark. Judging by her behaviour, one would think he'd promised to take her to the beach or something.
From here, the base of the mountain was less than a ten-minute's walk. A hikers' path had been made, marked by a plain wooden signpost, leading up the mountain and into the mouth of the cavern, the one that opened into the castle. The path had initially been made by the monsters on the day the Barrier broke. They'd trampled down the mountain in desperate, eager streams as they rushed to greet the world that they had been shut away from.
Sans didn't realise he'd stopped dead in his tracks, staring up at it, until Frisk's hand slipped into his.
"Are you scared?" she asked quietly.
He paused.
He considered lying to her, but what would be the point, really? He had lied to her enough – was lying to her enough. And even if he did lie, it was clear she wouldn't believe him.
"Yeah," he said, voice low. "Sorta." He jerked his chin in the direction of the mountain. "Come on. Let's get moving."
"Okay." Frisk dropped his hand and skipped forward a few steps, then turned and began to walk backward. "Can we do a shortcut?"
Sans chuckled. "You like the shortcuts? Better not let Papyrus hear ya say that."
"He'll say you're a bad influence," Frisk giggled. A few more steps; she nearly tripped once, then steadied herself. "Please?"
"Sure." Sans nodded. "Once we get to the base of the mountain, how's that? Bit of a long shot for me to travel if we go from here. And shortcuts are, uh, a little harder here on the Surface."
"Okay," said Frisk again, and shrugged, as if it didn't matter. But he caught her eyeing him suspiciously before she began to concentrate her energy on walking backward again. Then, just a moment later, "Dunkle Sans?"
Sans tensed. "Yeah, kiddo?"
She stopped walking backward suddenly. She resumed a normal pace, joining Sans at his side. She bit her lip. "Dunkle Sans, you know how you said… you said there's a Void leak and that's why I'm having my weird dreams?"
"… yes?"
"Is that for the whole world, or just the mountain?"
He hesitated. "That's a good question," he said warily. It was, too. Sans scratched the back of his skull. "Well, I figure… " The truth slipped out before he could stop it. "Truth is, prob'ly – well, maybe not the whole world, but I'd say the leak's prob'ly enough to make it beyond the mountain. 'cause before, in the Underground, whenever a bit o' Void energy came into the world with a Save or Reset, all that energy was contained by the Barrier, right? But now the Barrier's gone, there ain't… ain't nothing to stop it from spreading further. You understand?"
Frisk nodded. "Spread further to find me."
There was no fear in her tone, and that worried him. "Hey. Hey." Sans snapped his fingers at her. "You're gonna be just fine, okay? Nothing's lookin' for ya – no Void, no weird grey monsters, and definitely not him, before ya start goin' on about that again."
"But why – "
"I don't know." He cut her off sharply, harsher than he intended, but there wasn't any use in apologising at this point. "Whatever you're about to ask, I don't know."
Frisk fell silent. But only for a moment. "Could we close the tear?"
Sans almost tripped. "What?"
"Can we close the tear?" She turned on him, eyes shining. "The tear into the Void, do you think we can close it? And get all the Void stuff back where it came from? You and me could try together. With our Determination, maybe we could do it."
Sans had to keep himself from scoffing out loud. It was a nice idea, so sweet it bordered on saccharine, and was precisely the sort of thing the kid would come up with. "Yeah. And how would we do that? Exactly?"
Frisk shrugged.
He shook his head, unable to keep from laughing just a bit. "It's… a nice idea, okay, Frisk? But the Void don't work that way. It feeds on DT. 's what let it break out into the world in the first place."
"But if both of us tried! We just gotta stay Determined!"
Sans released a heaving sigh. Right. Great. Fantastic. Not only did he have to protect the kid, now that he'd made the stupid decision to let her tag along, but he had to deal with this nonsense. This absurd conviction that everything could be solved with love and friendship and just enough determination. Believe and it will come true. It was endearing, it was what made her so fundamentally good. And it was exactly what had made him come to love her so much, everything that reminded him of his brother. But right here, right now, it was a liability.
So too was that Determination of hers.
Yep. This one was really coming back to bite him in the coccyx.
And they weren't even in the Underground yet.
"You're Determined," he clarified, forcing patience into his tone. "The anomaly. I got Determination in me too, but it ain't – well, it ain't like yours. Not like I asked for it to be put there. It's not even in my soul, it's not a part o' me like it is with you."
Frisk stared at him hard, expression unreadable. At last she said, "But it's like we have a special connection! And I still think maybe we could – "
Sans groaned. "C'mon, kiddo. Drop it, okay? I just remember the timelines – I watch, never actually did any of the real work you did, Savin' and Resetting and all that jazz. Just put in the bare minimum of effort. I'm too lazy to be a real anomaly – that's old Sans for ya, heh."
"But Saaaaans – " Her voice pitched into a whine.
"Kid," he said warningly, and she gave a heavy, irritated sigh, then fell finally, mercifully silent.
They kept walking. Inside his pockets, Sans wrung the fabric of his hoodie. A connection. Seriously, what a notion. He was not an anomaly. The kid belonged to a world he would never be a part of. She was a powerful human anomaly, one with control over time itself, one who really mattered, whereas he was – God, he wasn't even a real monster.
"Hey," he spoke up, nodding toward the mountain. "I can shortcut from here – ready?"
The kid perked up, reaching out to take his hand again. Sans paused, then squeezed back. "You, uh, said there was a Save star in Snowdin, right?"
"Uh-huh. Right outside the shop."
"Okay. Should be familiar enough." Sans closed his eyes, concentrating, gathering his magic. He needed a clear image of his destination in his head to take a shortcut – successfully, anyway. His magic required that he have some kind of impression of his target location, however subconscious. After that, it was just a matter of breaking a few rules. Glitching across space, twisting it to his needs for a nanosecond. Hacking a code.
He pictured his hometown, pictured the squat little structure on the edge of town next to the Snowed Inn, and reached out to take a shortcut.
Radio static.
Glitching squares cutting across his vision.
The space around him jerking and halting, jerking and halting.
A tug on his soul, and then he'd landed.
Sans opened his eyes, suddenly dizzy and unsteady on his feet. Swaying on the spot, he brought a hand to his skull.
Yes, they'd landed – outside the mouth of the cavern leading into the Underground, all the way back at the castle. He'd missed.
"Okay, that was… weird." He lowered his hand and looked over at the kid at his side, still hanging onto him.
"You could try again," she suggested.
Sans started to respond in the affirmative, then shook his head. "No. No, I, I can't, I'm… I'm tired." It dawned on him as he spoke the words. "Real tired. You feel anything weird back there, bud?"
"No… Not more than usual when you shortcut… " Frisk looked into the cavern, craning her neck. "It's okay! We can walk to Snowdin, and there's supposed to be a Save star just inside the cave!" She let go of his sleeve and stepped into the cavern. "I can't see it from here."
Sans joined her. "Well, they woulda just disappeared when the Barrier broke, right? That power o' yours only existed in the Underground. Aw, kid, did you think they'd still be here?" Frisk said nothing, and Sans faltered. "Listen, kiddo, I'm sorry about that, but I just figured – "
"It's not that. I can feel where they're supposed to be. It feels empty." Frisk snapped her head up. "There used to be one in the throne room, come on!" She broke into a run down the dark corridor.
"Kid, wait – " Sans sighed, then followed at his usual easy pace.
The garden that had adorned the throne room had died. Where bright golden flowers once flourished, only the shrivelled remains of petals lay in dry browned clusters. Frisk stood in the centre of the room, directly under a patch of sunlight, hands cupped in front of her as if to catch it. Sans came to her side.
"Heya. Anything here?"
Frisk sighed and shook her head, curling her hands into fists and letting them fall to her side. "No… " Her voice trailed off and she paused, her mouth half-open as her gaze arced around the cavern. It flitted over to Sans. "Dunkle Sans? Something feels wrong."
Sans's head snapped over to her. Yes, yes, he was beginning to feel it too – a profound sense of wrongness, of something fundamental having shifted just out of place. The feeling started in his soul, then unfurled its great withered wings and spread through his bones like a rot.
"Yeah," he said, hand coming out to grip her arm. "Yeah, I was about to say the same thing."